Jagged Alliance: Flashback Live on Steam Early Access

We would like to announce that we are now officially live on Steam Early Access!!

A big thanks to all of you for helping us get to this point, we are looking forward to your reactions as well as all of the feedback, suggestions and input you may have.

To start off the early access with a blast, we decided to make a kickass trailer in the spirit of the old games, to give both old and upcoming fans of the franchise a taste of the 80’s action themed atmosphere.

Let there be no doubt, we really want to add both cheesy, odd and humorous elements to this game.

Full features professional map editor and modable games + Steamworkshop integration

Probably lots of bugs we didn’t discover yet

What will follow?

That’s a tricky question. A lot would be the quick answer. We plan to have regular updates where we expand the world and the number of mercenaries. But these are “just” content updates. And as every true Jagged fan knows, content isn’t everything. Anyways: Expect such smaller updates more often. But don’t expect them to have lots of new features. Cause features will be added in far less often but much bigger updates.

Please keep in mind that the following list is not a list of promised features, but a list of what we want to add to the game. If we find that something on the list doesn’t fit like expected it will, it won’t go in. It may be added at a later point, but we have to prioritize our efforts.

The next big updated is scheduled for the very end of June, and is planned to include more advanced combat with more weapon classes, different ammo types and interrupts. Furthermore, we are itching to finally include grenades, explosions and destructible environments, as well as giving the strategic map more gameplay weight in regards to resource management.

Milestone Update 1

Advanced Combat (Weapon classes, Ammo types & reloading, Interrupts)

Explosions & Destructible Environment

Throwables & Grenades

Resource Management on Strategic Layer

Milestone Update 2

Stealth (Concealment, Skill, Hearing)

Melee combat

Conquering Sectors & Militia

Milestone Update 3

Advanced Characters (Perks, Morale, Breath, Medial & Mechanics)

Doors (Lockpicking, Breaching, Interaction)

Mercenary tasks out of combat (Train militia, repair, healing,...)

Milestone Update 4

Advanced Enemies (Classes, Grenades, AI)

Additional Equipment (Attachments, Goggles,...)

Sector Upgrades

Side note to NPC names

Currently the NPC and Enemy names you have submitted are added to the EA in one pool, which means that there can be instances where a male NPC ends up having a female name. We’re also still missing a lot of responses, primarily from Paypallers, which will be added at a later point. Additional coding is needed to separate the genders in the game as well as code to make sure that not all random NPC take names from the backer pool. - Would ruin the game if all NPCs on the island were people who didn’t really fit the setting.

Early Access Keys

Right after this Kickstarter update, we’ll be sending out the keys for (Beta) Backers, which are backers in Tier $75+ and backers who paid for the beta upgrade, ($25-$65) + 20)). There are a lot of backers and it’s easy to miss one or two on the list, so please contact us at support@fullcontrol.dk if you think that is the case.

By taking away the shop, we also removed the option of adding extra funds on top of backer’s original pledges to get access to Steam Early Access. We thought that was a shame, so we’re currently looking into a way of allowing backers to do so. It will most likely be by sending out keys for Steam, which are then redeemable for a discount coupon for the game. The coupon will only be valid throughout the Early Access phase.

Final Surveys

Now that the store on our site is closed down, we’ll finally be able to finalize the tiers for Humble Bundle. Additionally, we will also be able to send out the rest of the surveys, which is mainly for Paypallers at this point. We apologize for this to be taking so long, but other tasks have taken priority up until this point.

So if I'm on the $42 tier and I've already responded saying I want the game on Steam, does that mean I'll be getting a separate Steam key (not the discount one for early access) once the game is finally released?

@Leon
Yeah I agree, we should have written Early Access, problem is that it is what it is...you get acces to the FULL GAME early..back then Steam EA really wasn't a thing....if it was called Steam Development Access or something there wouldn't really be an issue.

@Sean
We decided to run the Beta of the game via Steam EA, because it means we have more funds to develop the game, makes it easier to interact with the community, helps modding as the editor we've made available at EA launch is integrated with Steam Workshop.

@Grunk
If you have an account on HB with the same email as you do on Kickstarter then you do have access to the classic pack. If it's not in your library let me know...I think there's something you can press to claim games that are tied to your email.

Being a regular $150 backer, I am now wondering if I should already have access to the Humble bundle versions of the original game. I received my steam beta key alright, but was I supposed to receive a similar mail for Humble Bundle? If not, what do I have to do to activate my access for HB? Thank you in advance for helping!

What are you talking about Sean, have you not been keeping up?
The Steam price is the same or close enough to what the base price here+Beta Addon was.

I'm not quite sure I understand where you are coming from... unless you are one of those people you see on all Kickstarter projects who didn't opt in and pay for the extras.. but still feel that you are entitled to them?

People buying it on Steam now don't get to be super cool Kickstarter backers though.

There's no way I'm playing this game until after it's "finished." Maybe I'll even wait a bit then to see if there are more things to be patched or added. Why would you ruin the experience of playing anything with a story by playing a beta first?

I think Early Access/Beta is great for people who want to participate though. It really seems to have helped the Wasteland 2 guys with feedback and bug hunting. It's just a shame you guys wrote "Early Access" in the tier rewards instead of "early release" or something, because "Early Access" pretty much means "beta on Steam" now so that confuses people.

My apologies I read the comments and looked at the tiers, I didn't go back to read add ons and so have misrepresented the situation. So the real numbers are that the cheapest possible beta access I could've managed during the campaign would be £26.74 whereas it'd cost £25.49 to get it on steam today.

So my claim of "just over half" was wildly incorrect. People joining via steam greenlight today are still better off than those who backed during the campaign, which isn't great, but it's only by a very marginal amount that's probably not enough to make people wish they'd held off during the campaign. On the other hand it doesn't give people getting involved now much cause to wish they'd got on board during the campaign either.

In any event I accept the correction and want to focus more on how good the game is looking now :) Keep up the good work!

Honestly, I'm not that mad about it.
I'm in early access for Wasteland 2, for example, and let me tell you, the first time I started it up and tried to play there were so many things wrong with the UI and so many bugs that I didn't touch the game until about a week ago. Beta-Access can ruin a game's gaming experience.

And it's not only the bugs, or bad UI choices at the time. It's an overall "bad" experience, the fact that most scripts aren't there yet, that many game features haven't been implemented or only partially been implemented, the fact that the story is just not there yet, the knowledge that you're going to play that part again and again, up to the point where you've lost all interest in playing the game as soon as it's released. I don't want that to happen to Jagged Alliance: Flashback, even though the screenshots look amazing.

I love helping via actual beta testing (not that early access crap - sorry - that most companies pull these days, which seem to be more like a PR stunt than anything else), but I'm actually fine with waiting. I don't think Full Control needs my beta input anyways. :)

Offering access to non-backers for a little over half price compared to backers is a really poor attitude towards crowdfunding that I imagine will cost a bunch of backers on subsequent projects. I don't know how many people are thinking "If only I hadn't backed and was finding out about this project just now" but I bet it's more than none.

On the other hand the game itself has exactly the right attitude towards bringing a true successor to a much loved series. That's something that a lot of companies have done very badly in the past (Hands up who loves the dungeon keeper mobile app!) It's looking like this is going to be a great game.

I think I'd rather support a company that treats backers badly but is but good at making games over the reverse - this way around we still get a good game in the long run and know that we contributed towards making something good!

Right after this Kickstarter update, we’ll be sending out the keys for (Beta) Backers, which are backers in Tier $75+ and backers who paid for the beta upgrade, ($25-$65) + 20)). So if you didn't add $20 extra to your tier = 70 then you don't have access to the beta

Great trailer!
I just have a problem with the beta version though. It's not working! :(
I installed it, which worked just fine, and I could start the game just fine, but when I click "new game", I see a completely black screen with a small "mods" button in the top left corner, and an in-game cursor. And then it's "not responding" (so crashes, I guess) and I have to close it through Windows Task Manager. Any idea what's going on?

@florian
All backers are at $5 Tier and will be upgraded to the right Tier once we have the final tiers f backers..we closed down the shop on our site a few days ago and will get this done after the initial EA rush is over

!thumbs up on trailer, that was awesome 80s action trailer. My main issue with the animations at this point is that everything seems to be floating and moving without " weight". Original game had our mercs and npcs moving as if they had weight and not gliding across the terrain

Nick: Mods aren't influenced by any kind of DRM. The Steam version will, in the end, have Achievements for sure. Maybe some other Steam features as well. The DRM free version will be available everywhere else (not sure about GoG as we do not have a contract with them yet). And Mods will work with any version. You are not forced to use the Steamworkshop. You could upload them to the Nexus or on your private ftp (workshop isn't that much more actually, just with a better graphical interface).